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Gray, Parker undergo MRIs following Game 5

Gray, Parker undergo MRIs following Game 5

10/10/13: Sonny Gray snags Prince Fielder's comeback grounder, stranding two runners, but it is later learned he broke his thumb on the play

By Jane Lee
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MLB.com |

OAKLAND -- The A's considered themselves good enough to reach the American League Championship Series. But would they have been healthy enough to succeed in it had they advanced?

Less than 24 hours after his team suffered a Game 5 AL Division Series loss to the Tigers for a second straight year, A's manager Bob Melvin sat in his office and went through a laundry list of injury updates.

Notably, right-handed starters Sonny Gray (left thumb) and Jarrod Parker (right elbow) were scheduled to undergo MRIs at some point in the day.

Gray sustained a hairline fracture near the bottom of his thumb on his glove hand on a comebacker in the fifth inning of Thursday's game, which may have very well precluded him from participating in the Championship Series, though he feels confident he could've still pitched.

"I think so," Gray said while packing up his locker Thursday. "There's no doubt."

Parker, meanwhile, has been dealing with soreness in the forearm and elbow area of his pitching arm. Melvin is optimistic that's all it is.

"I hope that's what it is," he said. "In talking to him, he doesn't feel like it did when he had to have the [Tommy John] surgery. He just felt like it was tightness. He was worn down, had pitched a lot of innings."

A.J. Griffin, who was left off the Division Series roster to rehab his own elbow, made enough progress in recent days to lead Melvin to say he could've "maybe been ready to pitch in the next round."

"He felt great yesterday," he continued. "He's secure in his health going into the offseason, and that's a good thing.

Jane Lee is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.